The purpose of the African Women in Cinema Blog is to provide a space to discuss diverse topics relating to African women in cinema--filmmakers, actors, producers, and all film professionals. The blog is a public forum of the Centre for the Study and Research of African Women in Cinema.

15 November 2010

International Images Film Festival for Women 2010 presented by Women Filmmakers of Zimbabwe

From the International Images Film Festival For Women (IIFF) 2010 E-Catalogue

WELCOME!

It is with great pleasure that Women Filmmakers of Zimbabwe presents the 9th edition of the International Images Film Festival for Women (IIFF), the only professional women's festival south of the Sahara. Running under the theme WOMEN OF DECISION which investigates among other things, the societal pressures women face when making decisions for themselves, their families, and the community, IIFF will continue to stand out as a festival where people are not only entertained but are also educated and inspired.

IIFF received an overwhelming response of more than 100 films of different genres from across the globe. The selection was stiff but IIFF is proud to say more and more women are coming out of their closets to tell their stories and through their eyes. Screenings will be held at Ster Kinekor - Eastgate, Alliance Française and the Zimbabwe German Society in Harare where the premier television showcase, INPUT will take place. The Bulawayo leg of the festival will be celebrated at the Stanley Hall in Makokoba and finally for the first time ever, the Gwanda community will get an opportunity to watch the films at the Edward Ndlovu Memorial Library.

This year, IIFF incorporates some exceptional local films and therefore sees it fitting to open and close with local productions. The Ndichirimupenyu (While I Am Still Alive) Awards will this year take place in collaboration with UNIFEM during a special event on Gender Based Violence.

In attendance will be acclaimed filmmakers from Belgium, Britain, Poland, Belgium, Malawi, Mozambique and Namibia taking part in different training workshops. As always, it is necessary for us to thank the people without whose help this festival would not be possible. In particular, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to SIDA, Culture Fund, UNIFEM and Afrykamera, the corporate world for coming on board as well as friends, partners who have always supported IIFF. WFOZ team, your support is appreciated. We would also like to thank the audiences who love and support IIFF.

Yvonne Jila

Programmes Officer

THE FESTIVAL FILMS:

AN UNCOMMON WOMAN dir. Abdoulaye Dao

Burkina Faso 2008, Feature, 100mins, DVD

Mina, the Chairperson and Managing Director, decided to have co-spouses. For which reason! Her husband Dominique, unemployed ‘was cooing’ with Aicha, the neighbor’s wife…

At stake is a brave and eye-opening documentary anthology tackling taboo issues that many women are facing in the world’s most populous Islamic country, Indonesia. Topics range from female genital mutilation to the conflict that arises when unmarried women want to go to the gynecologist.

BEACHES OF ANGELS, THE dir. Angès Varda

France 2008, Documentary, 110mins, 35mm

Agnès Varda explores her memories, mostly chronologically, with photographs, film clips, interviews, reenactments, and droll, playful contemporary scenes of her narrating her story.

BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE dir. Vahur Laiapea

Estonia 2008, documentary, 58mins, DVD

From every corner of Estonia, mentally challenged young women are preparing for the beauty pageant Miss Vaimukad. The winner goes on to make her own movie.

BETWEEN THE CUP AND THE ELECTION dir. Monique Mbeka Phoba& Guy Kabeya Muya

DRC/Belgium 2008, documentary, 56mins, DVD

The Leopards, Zaire’s 1974 world-cup team, where are they today.Did they vanish into obscurity or are they running for political office? DRC’s veteran filmmaker Monique Phoba can tell...

BOLLYWOOD BOUND dir. Nisha Pahuja

Canada 2001, Documentary, 85mins, DVD

Bollywood Bound is a feature length documentary which tells the story of four young Indo Canadians who return to Bombay to find fame and fortune in the Hindi film industry, and who are at various stages of success.

BURNING MAN, THE dir Adze Udjah

SA 2008, Documentary, 24mins, DVD

Burning Man is a story of a Mozambican man burnt to death by a xenophobic mob in South Africa. Nigerian Filmmaker Adze Udjah follows his footsteps.

CATCH 22 dir. Simbi Gibson

Namibia 2010, Documentary, 24mins, DVD

A young lady is trapped between two choices, to kill her unborn baby and get her prestigious dream job or to keep the baby and lose the job.

CAMEL THORNSdir. Genevieve Tanya Detering

Namibia 2010, Short Film, 17mins, DVD

Set in Namibia, Africa, this short film serves as a teaser for a feature project and tells the story of two girls, Marie (Nicole Davidow) and Jessica (Klara Mudge) who find themselves in a threatening and life-altering situation.

CHALLENGES OF OUR TIMEdir.

Denmark/Kenya 2010, Documentary, 29mins, DVD,

“Rose Nyambura is among the characters featured in the film Challenges Of Our Time portraying lives of women in Kenya. Rose is living in Korogocho, a slum dwelling just outside Nairobi, with her grandmother.

CRIES AT NIGHTdir. Oshosheni Hiveluah

Namibia, 2009, Short Film,13mins, DVD

Lazurus’ niece is involved in an accident where he meets Victor. Something about Victor leaves Lazurus restless and he can’t forget the encounter or the man.

CRY OF THE SEAdir. Aicha Thiam

Senegal 2008, Documentary, 26mins, DVD

The “cry of the Sea” is the struggle of a mother, Yaye Bayam DIOUF, who lost her only

son in a dugout (or boat) for the Canary Islands.

ESTERHAZYdir Izabela Plucinska

Poland/ Germany, 2009, Short Film, 23mins, DVD

The story of a small Esterhazy and his research of Bunnies’s Paradies that truly existed between East and West part of the Berlin Wall.

EXIT dir. Malgorzata Bielkowska-Buehlmann

Poland 2009, Documentary, 29mins, DVD

This film was shot between 10th and 20th October 1989 and contains unique footage of the “Autumn of Nations” of 1989 – the beginning of transformation in Central-Eastern Europe. Through Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland people try to escape west. This film documents the emotions of desperate people in a moment of historical change.

FIGHTING SPIRITdir. George Amponsah

UK/ Ghana 2007, Documentary, 80mins, DVD

Bukom is a tiny shanty suburb of Accra in Ghana, and a factory for the toughest, most skilled boxers in the world.

FRAGMENT OF HISTORYdir. Uma Chakravati

India 2009, Documentary, 22mins, DVD

This documentary is based on the life of Subblakshmi who was born in 1897 and died in 1978, lived in Tamilnadu and was involved with the national movement for independence

FROM A WHISPERdir. Wanuri Kahui

Kenya 2009, Feature, 79mins, DVD

When an intelligence officer and a young, rebellious artist discover that they both lost somebody in the US Embassy bombing 10 years ago, they learn how to confront their fears and forgive.

GOD’S OFFICESdir. Claire Simon

France 2008, Feature, 122mins, 35mm

A realist dramedy about dedicated social workers who devote their long shifts to helping pregnant women.

GREATEST SILENCE: RAPE IN THE CONGO, THE dir. Lisa F. Jackson

DRC, 2007, Documentary, 76mins, DVD

This film features interviews with activists, peacekeepers, physicians and even- chillingly - the indifferent rapists who are soldiers of the Congolese Army. Despite all the harrowing moments talking to survivors and perpetrators, this powerful film also provides inspiring examples of resiliency, resistance, courage and grace. Winner of IIFF 2009 Documentary Award!

HOMELANDdir. Jacqueline Kalimunda

Rwanda/ France 2005, Documentary, 90mins, DVD

Homeland is a journey around Rwanda , with characters from two different generations: those who were 20 years old during the genocide and those who are old enough to have been 20 during the sixties, the independence years.

HOW THE THEMERSONS WALKED BACKWARDSdir. Victoria Davies-Szymanska

Poland/ France/Netherlands/UK 2008, Documentary, 72mins, DVD

The film retraces the love story of an unusual and unique creative union. Franciszka and Stefan Themerson lived and worked together for almost sixty years, first in Poland, then in France and eventually they settled in England.

IMPASSE dir. Bram Schouw

Netherlands 2008, Short Film, 5mins, DVD

A beautiful short about a young Nazi skinhead who finds himself sitting with a young black woman on a suburban night train.

IN THE TIME OF THE BUTTERFLIES dir. Mariano Barroso

Mexiko 2001, TV-Movie, 89mins, DVD with Salma Hayek

A young woman and her sisters fight against the brutality of the rule of Leonidas Trujillo, life-long dictator (1930-1961) of the Dominican Republic.The day of the Mirabal sisters’ death, Nov 25th, is observed in many Latin American countries as the Day against Violence towards Women.

I WANT A WEDDING DRESS dir. Tsitsi Dangarembga

Zimbabwe 2010, 3-part Feature, 89 min, DVD

The story of young Kundisai Sande who desperately wants to get married but finds herself in a sexual network with disastrous consequences. Her boyfriend Teri deserts her, only to find himself in the same sexual network. Mahachi, the successful, promiscuous businessman who seduces Kundisai, brings infection to the marriage bed. In the midst of their misery, the players in the sexual network come to realise that One Love can conquer all. OUT OF COMPETITION

IZULU LAMI, MY SECRET SKY dir. Madoda Ncayiyana

SA 2009, Feature, 93mins, DVD

A young girl and her little brother leave their rural homestead for the city when they are orphaned, and meet up with a gang of street kids. Hoping to fulfill their mother’s dream, in the end they find their own.

KICK IN IRAN dir. Fatima Geza Abdollahyan

Germany 2010, 82 min, documentary, DVD

‘Kick In Iran’ gives insights into the life of Tae Kwon Do fighter Sara Koshjamal- the first female athlete from Iran who has ever qualified for the Olympic games.

LOBOLA dir. Joe Ngagu

Zimbabwe 2010, 93mins, Drama, HD

The mutilation of the African marriage custom by a cosmopolitan groom, his brothers and their accomplice, the bride. OUT OF COMPETITION

MALL GIRLS dir. Katarzyna Roscaniec

Poland 2009, Feature, 77mins, DVD

Mall Girls looks at the trials and pitfalls of adolescence that can occur when moral support is lacking for a young teenager.

ME, MY GIPSY FAMILY AND WOODY ALLEN dir. Laura Halilovic

Italy 2009, Documentary, 50mins, DVD

A documentary by 19-year-old Laura Halilovic, won the Bellaria Film Festival 2009, “for the ability to describe in a soft, at times ironic, but always direct way, her own story, the one of her family and through these the difficult conditions of Gipsies in Italy.

MY VOICE dir. Flora Gomes

Portugal 2002, Feature, 110mins, 35mm

It has always been a firm conviction of Vita’s family that any woman who sings, will die. While in France, Vita becomes an international recording star. She realizes that sooner or later her mother in Africa will learn about it. To solve this dilemma she goes back to her native village and stages her own death and resurrection.

NOTHING PERSONAL dir. Urszula Antoniak

Netherlands/Ireland 2009, Feature, 85mins, DVD

A young female rebel and an old sage challenge each other in a story about personal freedom and attachment. She is a young Dutch woman, who becomes a vagabond by choice and finds solitude in an austere Irish landscape.

ONE WAR dir. Vera Glagoleva

Russia 2009, Feature, 85mins, DVD

Among modern films about WWII, Vera Glagoleva’s “One War” stands apart in many ways. Exploring themes that have been a taboo subject for years, the film strikes a very painful and dramatic chord.

P-STAR RISING dir. Gabriel Noble

Austria 2009, Documentary, 84mins, DVD

When Jesse discovers that his youngest daughter Priscilla can rap and perform, he sees redemption for his own failed music career and financial salvation for his family, and commits his life to make her a star.

PEARLS OF THE EAST, THE dir. Zulkarnain Meinardy

Indonesia 2009, Documentary, 23mins, DVD

A young girl living on an isolated mountain is struggling to attain an education and realizes that school is the most precious thing in her life.

PINK SARIS dir. Kim Longinotto UK 2010, Feature, 97mins, DVD

‘A girl’s life is cruel...A woman’s life is very cruel’, notes Sampat Pal, the complex protagonist at the centre of Kim Longinotto’s latest foray into the lives of extraordinary women.

RIDER WITHOUT THE HORSE

Namibia/ Germany, 2008, DVD, 11mins, Short Film

As Namibia celebrates its 18years, a colonial monument German Soldier steps down from his monument and is confronted by the Namibian army.

SACRED HEART dir. Ferzan Ozpetek

Italy, 2005, DVD, 116mins, Feature

Sacred Heart is a ‘love story’, of a woman coming to her true self , in a confrontation with her past, and the memory of her mother; the present, and the death of a young girl whom she befriended; and the future, and the direction her life will take.

SHE’S GOT AFRICA ON HER SHOULDERS dir. Idriss Diabate

Ivory Coast 2008, Documentary, 55mins, DVD

Portraits of ordinary African women from Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso, who spend 10 hours a day working in order to better their lives as well as to those around them.

SHIRLEY ADAMS dir. Oliver Hermanus

SA 2009, Feature, 92mins, DVD

A movie about a mother who has to take care of her crippled son - a victim of gang violence.

STARRING MAJA dir. Teresa Fabik

Sweden 2009, Feature, 91mins, DVD

The film is a heart-warming drama-comedy about overweight 18 year old Maja, whose size makes it difficult for her to be socially accepted and to make her dreams come true. It is an intimate story about people and their dreams - unfulfilled, suppressed and lost.

STRANGER dir. Malgosia Szumowska

Poland 2004, Feature, 95mins, DVD

19-year-old Eva gets pregnant by mistake and is talked by her family into having an abortion. But she starts talking to the child in her womb and, by describing the world for him, discovers it herself.

SUMMER IN BERLIN dir. Andreas Dresen

Germany, 2005, Feature, 105mins, 35mm

Two friends, one a carer for the elderly, the other unemployed live, live in an old tenement house and spend their evenings on a balcony high above the streets. A young man comes along and threatens to upset the harmony but brings one of them momentary happiness.

SUN SHINES ON ALL EQUALLY, THE dir. Abbas Rafei

Iran 2007, Feature, 90mins, DVD

Neger and Janet are close friends. Reza, Neger’s husband and Janet’s former lover, is a chemically injured war victim, with his recovery a total disappointment to his doctors.

TIMPOKO dir. Serge Armel Sewadogo

Burkina Faso 2008, Short Film, 14mins, DVD

Timpoko is a Yaaba (grandmother) who lives in her daughter’s family. One day her grandson is followed into her room and is beaten up by his father. She also ends up being hit whilst trying to defend him: a lack of respect that yaaba cannot accept.

THREE AND A HALF LIVES dir. Richard Pakleppa

Namibia 2009, DVD, 30mins, Short Film

Phillip Wetu- a young and attractive IT Professional- is envied by his buddies for his success with women.

TOKYO TOWER dir. Matsuoka Joji

Japan 2007, Feature, 142 mins, 16mm

Based on the book by: Lily Franky, the film alternates between the past, in which the central character, Masaya, narrates his life story, and the present, in which Masaya watches his mother die of cancer in the hospital.

TUNNEL, THE dir. Jenna Cato Bass

South Africa 2009, Feature, 24mins, DVD

A short film about a girl and her dreams during the 80s in Zimbabwe.

UNGOCHANI dir. Porcia Mudavanhu, supervised by Tsitsi Dangarembga

Zimbabwe 2010, documentary, 43 min, DVD

A young woman media studies student is fascinated by the uproar about homosexuality in Zimbabwe and the people her society condemns. Courageously, Porcia sets out to approach a taboo by looking compassionately at the lives of gay people in Zimbabwe. OUT OF COMPETITION

WILL YOU MARRY US dir. Micha Lewinsky

Switzerland 2009, Feature, 90mins, DVD

Rahel is employed as a civil registrar, She hasn’t believed in the so called ‘love of her life’ in ages. Bet when a childhood friend Ben, suddenly turns up, Rahel recalls again what it felt like to be in love.

WITCHES OF GAMBAGA,THE dir. Yaaba Badoe

Ghana/ UK 2009, 55mins, documentary, DVD

All over Ghana women who are in the way of their husbands, their lovers, their neighbors or anybody greedy enough to want what is theirs, are chased away from their families as “witches”. Sounds familiar? In Ghana, they find refuge in Gambaga, a “village of witches” under protection of a local chief.

WOMAN WITH FIVE ELEPHANTS, THE dir. Vadim Jendreyko

Switzerland 2009, Feature, 93mins, DVD

Her father ends up in one of Stalin’s prison camps, but young Svetlana Geier from Kiew, Ukraine is a survivor. She learns German and ends up in Germany after the war. 65 years later, she is one of the greatest translators of Dostojewsky’s novels.

ZIMBABWE dir. Darrel James Roodt

SA 2008, Feature, 91mins, DVD

A young 19 year old rural girl named Zimbabwe by her patriotic father, is orphaned. Starving and with few choices, she leaves her village in search of a distant aunt.

THE INPUT FILMS:

CONTACT dir. Martin Butler, Bentley Dean

Australia 2009, documentary , 52 min, DVD

The story of the indigenous Australian women and children who were the last to establish first contact between the western world and “the desert people” in the 60s.

THE WOMAN OF BRUKHAM dir. Isaac Isitan

Canada 2008, documentary, 52 min, DVD

THE FUTURE OF JOURNALISM - WHO’S GOING TO PAY FOR IT ?

Germany 2009, 12 min, documentary, DVD

Innovative report about journalism in the times of the “ new media” and it’s future.

24 BERLIN, A DAY IN THE LIFE dir. Volker Heise

Germany 2009, 40 min, documentary, DVD

RABBITS À LA BERLIN dir. Bartek Konopka, Piotr Rosolowski

Germany, 2009, 39 min, documentary, DVD

Documentary on the destruction of a huge wildlife resort in the middle of the German capital: the green meadows around the Berlin wall.

THE LITTLE BOY AND THE BEAST dir. Johannes Weiland, Uwe Heidschötter

Germany 2009, 6 min, short animation, DVD

Both tragic and funny, this little animation by a German tv-station will move your heart.

SAVAGE EYE dir. Kieron J. Walsh, Damien O’Donnell

Ireland 2009, 25min, TV Satire- Magazine, DVD

Authentic and with sharp humor, this tv-satire looks at the most important status symbol of the Irish: owning a house.

LIKE A MAN ON EARTH dir. Biadene

Italy 2008, 60 min, documentary, DVD

GOLDFISH dir. Hiroshi Kurosaki

Japan 2009, 53min, feature, DVD

ESTERHAZY dir. Izabela Plucinska

Poland 2009, 23min, animation, DVD

The story of a small Esterhazy and his research of Bunnies’s Paradies that truly existed between East and West part of the Berlin Wall.

PLAIN TALK

South Africa 2009, 25min, Talk Show, DVD

Community TV at it’s best. A high-density community in South Africa is producing it’s own talk show.

LIFE ON JEUNG ISLAND dir. Hyoung-Suk Kim

South Korea 2008, 60min, documentary, DVD

THE VOICES OF PAMANO dir. Lluis M. Guell

Spain 2009, 75min, documentary, DVD

TABOO dir. Orane Burri

Switzerland 2008, 52min, documentary, DVD

Courageous report on one of the big taboos in the western media: a loved one’s dying.

WONDERLAND: THE BRITISH IN BED dir. Philippa Robinson

UK 2009, 60min, documentary, DVD

British obsession with sex from an unusual angle - the most ordinary people talk about their most normal sex life. In the most usual place: their bed.

THE NDICHIRIMUPENYU AWARDS

National Arts Gallery - 24 November 2010 during the launch of Sixteen Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence in association with UNIFEM GENDER FORUM

The Ndichirimupenyu Awards is a Women Filmmakers Of Zimbabwe (WFOZ) initiative to recognize the achievements of women in various fields and especially as their achievements relate to uplifting lives in the women's respective communities. The awards are aimed at energizing the commitment of other women and men to engagement beyond the pursuit of mere personal gains. The awards reach out to women from all walks of life in Zimbabwe. The awards are for women who are alive, and conquering the world around them positively and effectively as builders of homes, communities, society and the nation.

One more objective of the awards is to counter societal discrimination against women, which tends to commend and applaud the contributions of men to development at the expense of women's equally important involvement. This year, WFOZ has joined hands with UNIFEM GENDER FORUM (network for various organizations) in selecting the nominees and a have also introduced the idea of activism against GENDER BASED VIOLENCE THROUGH ART.

NDICHIRIMUPENYU/ NGISAPHILA/ WHILE I AM STILL ALIVE

ART EXHIBITION AND WOMEN’S FAIR

Quite often you find people discussing how they saw death knocking its doors through domestic, gender-based violence. They talk about how she shy she was and how she had silently endured the physical abuse and violence, all for the sake of her marriage and the children. They relate certain incidents that probably explain the build-up to the final blow resulting in the death of the wife and children and the suicide death of the husband. If only these stories had been talked about in time before this tragic event, solutions and preventive measures could have been taken.

Women filmmakers of Zimbabwe in association with United Nations Fund for Women GENDER FORUM decided to mark the Sixteen Days of activism against gender based violence by using Art as a tool for visual activism that raises public awareness and promotes participation of local communities and mobilizes them to create safe places for women in the society. Art is a powerful voice for the voiceless and a means of message conveyance that reaches out to everyone and has no boundaries. NDICHIRIMUPENYU/NGISAPHILA/WHILE I AM STILL ALIVE women's fair and art EXHIBITION encourages women to tell their stories on Gender-Based Violence and related issues through art.

The exhibition and women's fair will inform and educate the communities that Gender Based Violence goes far beyond the physical violence that millions of women suffer every day, but that it has far reaching consequences harming families and communities and its effects can be physical, psychological, sexual or economical. Art will be used to expose and display TRUE effects of GBV as well as to advocate for positive behavior change concerning the status of women in society and through modeling positive attitudes in films and art works. Women's organizations and women from all walks of life will be able share information on practical solutions for creating a safe environment for women against all cultures of violence.

WOMEN Filmmakers Of Zimbabwe have over the years, successfully used art as a means of expression and communication.. THROUGH EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION AND EXCHANGE OF IDEAS, GENDER BASED VIOLENCE CAN BE MADE A THING OF THE PAST.

MINI-INPUT HARARE 2010

We are very happy to present as part of our festival the Mini-Input Harare 2010 at the Zimbabwe German Society with a selection of programmes from this year’s International INPUT conference.

Input (the acronym is derived from international public television) is an annual weeklong television showcase where the rules of broadcasting are challenged and redefined. Founded in 1978, this event is the only international conference that focuses specifically on the innovative programmes produced by public as opposed to commercial broadcasters.

But INPUT is much more than a television festival. It is a voluntary organisation governed and administered by men and women working with public television worldwide. So this Mini-Input will screen, discuss and evaluate the latest trends in public television programmes from around the world, and is therefor a must for all film-, television- and electronic media professionals in Zimbabwe.

Input is dedicated to exploring the limits of television beyond the merely conventional and derivative and reject the notion that it must be either “popular” or “cultural”, refusing to view these terms as mutually exclusive.